Lecture 9-14-09 revised - serfs accepted their inferiority...

September 14, 2009Review Concepts:Articles of Confederation"We the people" preamble to the ConstitutionAmerican Exceptionalism: The New World anddeTocquevilleWho is DeTocqueville?-French aristocrat -wrote a travel journal on the state of democracy in America (1830s)for more biographical information: www.tocqueville.orgCentral argument: In American society, equality ofconditionis the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived. P. 26The gradual development of the principle of equality is a providential fact. Advances in western civilization (education, overthrow of monarchies, rise of the merchant class) have made inequality untenable.-29Regal v. Democratic authorityRegal--can be oppressive, but it is conservative, direct and centralized.Democraticauthority—not concentrated (diffuse) and unpredictable, never know what the whims of the masses

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may be; power indirect and invisible.In a regal system:hereditary land distributionfeudal labor arrangements

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Unformatted text preview: serfs accepted their inferiority – p. 31* In a democratic system: government in superior position instead of king distance between social classes lessened class competition - eliminates noblesse oblige But democracies eliminate all vestiges of regal systems, even the positive things.-33 While Democracy may be inevitable, the American “form” is not the only one possible – 36 American Exceptionalism /equality of condition I. The Origin of the Anglo-Americans De Tocqueville says all nations bear the marks of their origins: it is what becomes the national character. Equality of condition qualities: 1. common language of emigrants 2. township tradition of local government 3. emigrants had no notion of superiority over each other: "The happy and the powerful do not go into exile. .."-41 4. soil of America opposed to aristocracy-needs land-41-2 5. had more internal freedom than any of the other English colonies-44...
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